Hand-painted designs such as murals and rosemaling have long been used to decorate wall and ceiling surface, furniture, and the like. Typically, such designs had to be drawn and painted by artists in order to create a professional, three-dimensional, well-finished appearance. Those less talented decorators who wanted a professional-appearing result have in the past used such techniques as taking pre-printed wall graphics and applying them to walls in much the same manner as wall paper or using stencil kits to roll on decorative strips or borders. Creating the appearance of a lifelike, realistic, professional, three-dimensional hand-painted decoration is difficult, however, and is not accomplished by either of these two foregoing methods.
A familiar type of hand-painted art is the paint-by-numbers kit, usually consisting of a cardboard or other flat panel upon which a design is printed, with each of the enclosed areas of the design identified with a number. These numbers correspond to different colors of paints and the "artist" can complete a picture by filling in each of the designated areas with the color identified in the area. This type of design does not produce a realistic effect. Colors are not blended together but are applied in discrete patches, which border on each other and do not blend in with each other. When a paint-by-number graphic is viewed up close, it has the appearance of a collection of separate patches of paint rather than a blended, coherent artistic effect.
Attempts have been made to adapt the paint-by-number technique to creating murals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,696,400 (Warman) teaches and describes a kit for creating murals consisting of a slide projector, a slide transparency of a graphic design with different areas of the design identified by numbers, a collection of paint pots numbered to correspond with the numbers on the transparency, and a number of brushes to be used for applying the paint. In use, the transparency is projected on the wall to be decorated and copied by following the outlines of the transparency with pencils so that a pencilled design remains on the wall. Thereafter, the individual areas are painted in accordance with the numbers identified in the different areas of the transparency.
It can be readily appreciated that such a technique brings with it the same non-satisfying results as the paint-by-numbers kits, namely, the creating of contiguous patches of flat-looking color as opposed to the blending and overlapping of colors and brush strokes present in conventionally painted scenes.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,372,493 (Birch) teaches and describes an antiqued painting on wood and by-the-number system of making the same which deliberately takes advantage of the effect created by discrete adjoining patches of color by using outlined, discrete areas to simulate primitive, antique paintings on wood. The '493 patent utilizes outlined drawings with the individual segments to be colored outlined on oleophobic ink to insure that any paint overlapping onto the lines will not stick to the lines but will be instead confined to the spaces delineated by the lines. The '493 patentee implicitly acknowledges that the paint-by-numbers is useful to produce, at best, a rather primitive painting effect.
A number of patents disclose paint-by-number techniques, apparatus and kits.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,712,189 (Grossman) teaches and describes a painting kit for paint-by-numbers art with paints packaged in individual capsules and with a part of the packaging used to hold the capsules.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,744,349 (Grossman) teaches and describes a method of painting in the reproduction of paintings as a paint-by-numbers kit using lecithin-based paints.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,825,150 (Steiner) teaches and describes the production of water color pictures which adapts the medium of water colors to paint-by-numbers by providing drawings with numbered areas and water color pens used to fill in the spaces. to U.S. Pat. No. 2,954,615 (Brown) teaches and describes an art painting kit which utilizes a transparent sheet with a paint-by-numbers design printed on one side with erasable lines. Paint is then applied to the other side and, after the paint has dried, the lines are erased, leaving only the painted surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,416,632 (Berman) teaches and describes a paint-by-numbers kit which further adapts the use of water colors to paint-by-numbers art by printing the numbers in water-soluble ink so that the numbers disappear as the water colors are applied.
U.S. Pat. No. 841,360 (Tuck) teaches and describes a combined painting book and color box which is a kit in which the pictures to be painted are kept in a book along with the paints to be used.
Another shortcoming of prior known mural transfer techniques and kits is the fact that the pattern to be transferred must be transferred exactly as drawn with no provision for changing or rearranging elements within the mural or graphic. Prior attempts to add successive, multiple elements to drawings do not achieve the effect of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,447,250 (Van Savage) teaches and describes a painting guide kit using multiple sheets placed successively under a transparent sheet and copied or painted onto the upper surface of the sheet.
There is also known a dressmakers' technique for transferring patterns to cloth by using clothing patterns printed on carbonless "tracing paper" by printing the pattern on one or more sheets of tracing paper which, when traced with a tracing wheel or a stylus leaves a line or track on the cloth over which the tracing paper is placed. The paper itself, and the "star wheel" tool used to track designs on the paper are well known to dress makers: such star wheels and tracing paper are sold, for example, by the Dritz Company and are typical examples. There is no provision in these techniques for using less than an entire pattern or for making changes in the designs presented.
U.S. Pat. No. 235,898 (Rogers) teaches and describes a stylus for writing on manifold paper which is a tool with a solid metal stylus used for writing on "manifold" paper (carbon paper).
U.S. Pat. No. 3,707,098 (Kern) teaches and describes a transfer tool having a PTFE tip to eliminate friction between the tip and the transfer paper.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,760,660 (Van Arnam, et al.) teaches and describes a burnishing tool having a tip mounted to a spring-loaded plunger which applies a constant force to the surface of a carrier sheet during tracing.
U.S. Pat. 3,494,040 (Goodwin) teaches and describes a sewer's marking tool having five arms, one of which has a star wheel marker, while the remaining four arms are each formed in the shape of a common dressmaker's symbol and may be used to transfer those symbols from a pattern to cloth.
U.S. Pat. Des. No. 199,564 (Koss) teaches and describes a combined seam ripper and tweezers, an example of a sewer's accessory combining more than one function on a single tools.
Techniques for transferring graphic designs to flat workpieces are also found in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 5,226,990 (Satomi) teaches and describes a method for transferring a rough design to a textile or leather substrate by overlaying the design to be copied with an ink-permeable sheet, tracing the design onto the sheet with a writing implement, placing the sheet over a leather or textile substrate and retracing the design with a writing implement, enabling the ink to permeate the sheet and leave a copy of the design on the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,016,452 (Alexander) teaches and describes a method for transferring a color photograph to a leather surface by xerographically copying the photograph, overlaying the leather with the copy and using leatherworking tools to outline the copy and, thereby, cut and raise the surface of the leather to reproduce the photo. The leather is then dyed or colored to produce a colored-in version of the photograph.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,598 (Cook) teaches and describes the creation of composite pictures by tracing portions of a master picture onto colored cloth sheets in accordance with numbers on the original and thereafter cutting out the individual picture elements and gluing them onto a backing sheet to produce a finished graphic.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,289,342 (Witte) teaches and describes a device for transferring outlines or drawings in color which involves the tracing of an illustration to produce a colored copy by successively tracing portions of the illustration through colored carbon paper sheets.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,071,441 (Varren) teaches and describes the use of a transparent manifolding pattern sheet with a backing having a design and colored carbon impressions outlining the design elements. Use of a pencil or tracing tool applied to the front of the sheet transfers a colored outline version of the design to a blank sheet placed under the transfer sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,732 (Levy, et al.) teaches and describes a method of applying signs to glass by placing a film of material, bearing the desired design, on the outside of the glass and placing a translucent sheet on the inside of the glass in registration with the film and, thereafter, cutting away portions of the sheet corresponding to the design and removing the film.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,372,506 (Hambright) teaches and describes a draw-through pattern graphics system for applying graphics to clothing items. A bracket is used to hold a portion of the clothing against a backing board while, at the same time, holding a screen pattern in register with the bracket. Inks are then applied to the screen pattern in various colors, and the pattern can be removed from the bracket to check the progress of the transfer.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,535,242 (Parmenter) teaches and describes a tracing and printing device having a holder within which a graphic to be traced is placed. A clear sheet is also placed within the holder and the graphic is traced onto the sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,328,051 (Robinette) teaches and describes a system for transferring images in which a first tracing is made onto a transparent sheet and thereafter is transferred to a net-like material. Thereafter, the design is transferred to a fabric substrate by tracing through the interstices of the net-like sheet. The resulting pattern may thereafter be colored.
The present invention has the following objects:
(1) to provide a kit and methods for using the kit to transfer a mural in successive stages to a selected surface, and to allow the coloring of each stage before the next stage is applied; PA1 (2) to provide such kits in forms which allow the rearrangement or insertion of additional elements in the design at the artist's discretion; PA1 (3) to provide such kits in forms which enable the mural patterns to be applied to a flat surface, removed, then reapplied to the same surface in exactly the same position as originally attached, producing images appearing to have depth; PA1 (4) to provide mural kits in forms to allow the overlapping of painted areas, as with conventional paintings to create a three-dimensional effect; PA1 (5) to provide mural kits in forms to allow the artist to select the colors to be applied and guides the artist in applying various shadings of those colors; and PA1 (6) to provide such kits in forms which are simple, complete, inexpensive and easy to use.